By Edward Taylor and Julia Love FRANKFURT/SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - BMW and Apple may rekindle a courtship put on hold after an exploratory visit by executives of the world's top maker of electronic gadgets to the headquarters of the word's biggest seller of premium cars. Apple Chief Executive Tim Cook went to BMW's headquarters last year and senior Apple executives toured the carmaker's Leipzig factory to learn how it manufactures the i3 electric car, two sources familiar with the talks told Reuters. The dialogue ended without conclusion because Apple appears to want to explore developing a passenger car on its own, one of the sources said. More »

Sharp Corp on Friday said it would exit the TV set business in the Americas and consider more steps to shore up its finances, after reporting a deeper-than-expected quarterly loss on weak sales of smartphone displays. The Japanese electronics maker said it would sell its TV manufacturing plant in Mexico and license its brand in the Americas to China's Hisense Group. In a separate statement, Hisense said it would pay $23.7 million for the business. More »

(Reuters) - Apple Inc will launch the next generation of its Apple TV set-top box in September, with a new remote and support for Siri voice control, online publisher BuzzFeed reported on Thursday. The new Apple TV will have a slimmer chassis, a "drastically improved" remote with touch-pad input, increased on-board storage and an operating system that will support Siri, BuzzFeed said, citing sources familiar with the matter. Apple said it declined to comment on rumors and speculation. More »

By Jim Finkle and Bernie Woodall BOSTON/DETROIT (Reuters) - A researcher is advising drivers not to use a mobile app for General Motors Co's OnStar vehicle communications system, saying hackers can exploit a security flaw in the product to unlock cars and start engines remotely. "White-hat" hacker Samy Kamkar posted a video on Thursday saying he had figured out a way to "locate, unlock and remote-start" vehicles by intercepting communications between the OnStar RemoteLink mobile app and the OnStar service. More »

By Michael Gold TAIPEI (Reuters) - The latest chapter in the miniaturisation of increasingly smart consumer electronics lies in the hands of chip packagers, an indispensable group of firms whose role in the supply chain alone is worth $27 billion. Packagers like Taiwan's Advanced Semiconductor Engineering Inc (ASE) receive chips from manufacturers and prepare them for device assemblers by, for instance, encasing them in metal and resin. The advent of wearable devices, particularly Apple Inc's Apple Watch and its dozens of chips, pushed packagers to devise innovative ways of cramming ever-more communications, graphics and location chips into the tiniest of spaces. More »

By Andrew Chung NEW YORK (Reuters) - In a setback for Google Inc , a U.S. appeals court ruled on Thursday that the low licensing rate Microsoft Corp pays to use some of Google's Motorola Mobility patents had been properly set. The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco said a lower court judge properly determined the patents' value even though the royalty rate was only a fraction of what Motorola had asked for. Google sold the Motorola handset business to Lenovo last year but kept its patents. More »

By Eric Auchard FRANKFURT (Reuters) - Results from Europe's big chipmakers show business conditions have deteriorated quickly in previously healthy markets for auto electronics and industrial components, adding to concerns over the industry's traditional drivers - computers and phones. China's recent stock market crash and the spillover effects on consumer and business trends in the world's biggest growth market have added uncertainty at a time when chip inventories normally are built up to meet surging year-end product demand. Europe's market leaders Infineon, NXP and ST have reported generally solid second-quarter results, but both Infineon and NXP said on Thursday said they are bracing for tougher conditions in the current quarter, while ST said last week it expected tepid growth around 2.5 percent. More »

HELSINKI (AP) — Nokia enjoyed a solid 60 percent rise in net profit in the second quarter, with a good performance in its core networks division suggesting the Finnish company is succeeding in turning its business around since selling its handsets operation to Microsoft in 2013. More »

Samsung Electronics Co Ltd, which faced a trial on patent infringement in a lawsuit brought by patent holder Smartflash LLC, can halt the proceedings while the Smartflash patents are scrutinized for their validity by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, a U.S. appeals court ruled on Thursday. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit also declined to stay the Smartflash case against Apple. The iPhone maker lost a $533 million infringement verdict last February to Smartflash, but a lower court judge has ordered a new trial on damages. More »

The signing of Jeremy Clarkson, James May and Richard Hammond could be just what Amazon needs to give it the edge over rival Netflix. The deal has caused a big stir in the world of video streaming and, with Top Gear's huge global following, is likely to lead to thousands of fans signing up. While Netflix is dedicated to video streaming, Amazon Prime is a wider service with a host of benefits and services, ranging from free next-day delivery on physical items from the Amazon online store to cloud photo storage and music streaming, alongside Prime Instant Video - its Netflix rival. More »

Sony Corp reported its highest first-quarter profit since 2007 on Thursday due to strong sales of camera sensors and PlayStation 4 videogames, beating analyst estimates and helping to reassure investors a recent stock offering would pay off. The result comes after Sony last month announced its first capital raising in a quarter of a century, sending its shares tumbling. Sony said it would use the funds to boost production of image sensors, which are now among its strongest-selling products. More »

Sony Corp reported its highest first-quarter profit since 2007 on Thursday due to strong sales of camera sensors and PlayStation 4 videogames, beating analyst estimates and helping to reassure investors a recent stock offering would pay off. The result comes after Sony last month announced its first capital raising in a quarter of a century, sending its shares tumbling. Sony said it would use the funds to boost production of image sensors, which are now among its strongest-selling products. More »

By Se Young Lee SEOUL (Reuters) - Samsung Electronics Co Ltd on Thursday offered a downbeat outlook for the second half of the year as smartphone market growth slows and ahead of the expected release of new iPhones from arch rival Apple Inc. The firm also reported a 4 percent fall in second-quarter profit and ruled out a "special dividend" similar to a big year-end payout for 2014. Samsung's dominance is being chipped away at the low-to-mid end by Chinese rivals such as Huawei Technologies Co Ltd [HWT.UL] and in the premium segment by Apple, while some markets show signs of saturation. Researcher TrendForce last week cut its 2015 global smartphone market growth forecast to 8.2 percent from 11.6 percent earlier. More »

(Reuters) - Laird Plc, a British electronic components maker, posted a 35 percent jump in statutory pretax profit for the first half, driven by growth in both its performance materials and wireless divisions. The company, whose customers include Apple Inc and Samsung Electronics Co Ltd, said its statutory pretax profit rose to 21.6 million pounds in the six months ended June 30 from 16 million pounds a year earlier. Revenue in sterling rose 21 percent to 305.9 million pounds, the company said. ... More »

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Federal Reserve appears on track to raise interest rates later this year but signaled Wednesday that it wants to see further economic gains and higher inflation before doing so. More »

Volkswagen AG , the world's No. 1 automaker, will offer automatic braking and other crash avoidance systems as standard or optional features on most 2016 models sold in the United States beginning later this year, the company said on Wednesday. Volkswagen said it will offer systems that can bring a car to a full stop from about 18 miles (29 km) per hour when the vehicle’s sensors detect an imminent crash. At higher speeds, the automatic braking system will slow the vehicle but may not bring it to a full stop, VW senior engineer Michael Rohlfs said in a presentation to journalists. More »

Microsoft debuted its new Windows 10 operating system Wednesday, in what the company hopes will be a pivotal moment in its bid regain its sway in a world where the PC is no longer king. The first people ... More »

Microsoft Corp's launch of its first new operating system in almost three years, designed to work across laptops, desktop and smartphones, won mostly positive reviews for its user-friendly and feature-packed interface. The launch was seen critical for the company, particularly after the poor response to Windows 8, an ambitious redesign that confused many users by ditching the start button menu and introducing a new layout. The new OS, launched on Wednesday, will be available as a free upgrade for users of Windows 7, Windows 8.1 and Windows Phone 8.1. More »

The European Commission on Wednesday said it would register Britain's "traditional Bramley apple pie filling" as a protected historical delicacy in the European Union. The British pie filling is a blend of fresh Bramley apples, sugar, and water. It may optionally contain Bramley apple puree, corn flour, and lemon juice. More »

Twitter's interim boss - flashing "shades of Steve Jobs" - is plotting out a massive overhaul of the service which could see it looking a lot more like Facebook. Jack Dorsey said he would spare no sacred cows while trying to turn around the site's fortunes, and suggested that the unfiltered timeline of tweets could become more like Facebook's algorithmically ranked news feed. Twitter shares slumped by 11% in after-hours trading after the service confirmed it was still struggling to add users . More »

By Se Young Lee SEOUL (Reuters) - South Korea's LG Electronics Inc said on Wednesday its quarterly profit skidded 60 percent, plummeting below estimates, as sales of televisions and smartphones buckled under weaker demand and intense competition from rivals. LG, the world's No. 2 TV maker after Samsung Electronics Co Ltd , said second-quarter operating profit fell to 244 billion won ($211 million) from 610 billion won in the same period a year earlier. More »

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — LG Electronics said Wednesday its second quarter earnings sank 45 percent over a year earlier as losses widened in its TV business and mobile phones earned little income. More »

By Se Young Lee SEOUL (Reuters) - South Korea's LG Electronics Inc said on Wednesday its quarterly profit skidded 60 percent, plummeting below estimates, as sales of televisions and smartphones buckled under weaker demand and intense competition from rivals. LG, the world's No. 2 TV maker after Samsung Electronics Co Ltd, said second-quarter operating profit fell to 244 billion won ($211 million) from 610 billion won in the same period a year earlier. More »

(Reuters) - British precision engineering company Renishaw Plc forecast lower revenue for the current fiscal year, saying that it was hard to predict how many large orders it would win. Analysts have in the past linked Renishaw's large order wins to the launch of new products from Apple Inc , which last week cast doubts over the strength of the global smartphone market and its fourth-quarter revenue forecast fell short of analyst estimates. Renishaw said it expected revenue to be in the range of 460 million pounds to 485 million pounds for the year ending June 30, 2016. More »

NEW YORK (AP) — It took me just a weekend to get comfortable with Microsoft's new Windows 10 operating system, something I never did with its predecessor, Windows 8, even after nearly three years. More »

Windows 10 - the latest edition of Microsoft's operating system complete with a brand new web browser - has been launched. The software will work across all Windows-powered devices for the first time - from smartphones and tablets to laptops and the Xbox One console. Edge replaces Internet Explorer as the built-in web browser, while the smartphone voice assistant known as Cortana will appear on desktop computers for the first time. More »

Motorola is refreshing its Android smartphones with better cameras and other improvements as it seeks to lure customers who want lower-cost alternatives to leading smartphones from Apple and Samsung. More »